INTRODUCTION
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legendary hero, the country prospered for a while and attained with Tigranes the Great (94-54 b.c.) an ephemeral greatness without precedent until then and without any parallel ever since. In 66 a.d. a branch of the Parthian (Arsacid) Dynasty was established in Armenia under the suzerainty and protection of Rome. The first king of this house was Tiridates I, formerly the head of the Magi of his country, who may have done much in Armenia for the establishment of Zoroastrianism. It was under Tiridates II, a scion of this royal house, that, in the beginning of the fourth century of our era, Christianity, long present in the country, and often persecuted, achieved its fuller conquest.
